Vareikis, Vygantas

English

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Paramilitarism and OPPOrtunities  
fOr its aPPlicatiOn: research by histOrians  
at Klaipėda University 
vygantas vareikis
Klaipėda University
in the autumn of 2015, druka publishers brought out the study The Will to Resist: Li-
thuanian Military Security Issues, by vygantas vareikis, vytautas Jokubauskas, Jonas vai-
čenonis and Hektoras vitkus. the book completed the three-year project The Role of 
Paramilitary Units in the National Defence System: Case of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union 
(Mip-001/2013) at Klaipėda University’s institute of Baltic region History and archaeo-
logy, led by vygantas vareikis and funded by the research Council of lithuania. 
For history which counts time in millennia, three years is a mere a blink of an eye; 
for a human being, three years may be a period full of big and controversial events. 
in the spring of 2013, when the project was launched, anybody suggesting the pos-
sibility of armed conflict between the russians and the Ukrainians in Ukraine, and 
the revival of the tough rhetoric of the Cold War and militarisation in europe, would 
have been given a strange look. three years after the launch of the project, security 
issues are in the spotlight of military and security professionals and the media all 
over europe, information wars are going on, and the number of military conflicts has 
significantly increased. 
the research into military history takes on a new meaning in the face of the threat 
that has never disappeared. power games between states continue, and after all, a 
couple of decades ago, military historians argued that in the future the number of 
wars and conflicts would grow, but not vice versa. therefore, at the beginning of the 
above-mentioned research, problems of an academic nature were raised, and ans-
wers to questions formulated on the basis of scientific hypotheses and insights were 
looked for, while due to the changes in the security situation in east-Central europe, 
and lithuania’s greater concerns about national military defence, the results of the 
project have acquired the value of practical application. it was no accident that the 
final seminar in the project was held in the Officers’ Club in Kaunas, in collaboration 
with the lithuanian army and the lithuanian riflemen’s Union (lietuvos šaulių są-
junga, lrU). the intention was to show that research into historical experience could 
contribute to the debates on issues of national security and military defence. 
in the history of warfare, an analysis of conventional wars predominated for a long 
time in the tradition of the outstanding theoretician Carl von Clausewitz, in accor-
eMpires and natiOnalisMs in tHe Great War: interaCtiOns in east-Central eUrOpe 
acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis XXXi, 2015, 220–223. issn 1392-4095 (print), issn 2351-6526 (Online) 
disCUssiOns / apžvalGOs
221
dance with which the goal of regular forces was to defeat the enemy in the battle-
field. Guerilla warfare, or ‘little war’, was then viewed only as a potential additional 
measure, to fight in areas which could not be directly reached by the enemy’s milita-
ry forces. according to some researchers, the roots of guerilla resistance or guerilla 
tactics in warfare date back to prehistoric times, and guerilla warfare techniques 
are still valid. as is proven by the historical tradition, the phenomenon of guerilla 
resistance rested on a voluntary basis, since in the absence of the possibility to mo-
nitor and lead combatant action, only motivated volunteers are able to act under 
conditions of guerilla war for a period of time. lithuanian history of the 19th and 
20th centuries boasts a number of examples of guerilla resistance, caused by the 
imbalance of human, economic and military force.
the authors of the research have focused on an analysis of the organisation of gu-
erilla, and not conventional, warfare and resistance in lithuania, in order to prove 
that the movement and its preliminary organisation were effective in 20th-century 
lithuanian history, and the experience and the opportunities for its application could 
also be used in lithuania in the 21st century in order to ensure military security. 
the implementors of the project have presented the results at international conferen-
ces and seminars in lithuania, poland, latvia and Ukraine, and they have also prepa-
red the research results, with a special focus on two monographs and a digital refe-
rence book on members of the interwar lrU, and presented it to the general public.1 
the team of researchers in paramilitary studies analysed the activities of the lrU 
after the First World War, the riflemen’s training in the interwar period, forms of 
rapprochement in the society of the republic of lithuania, and the principles of civil 
warfare and paramilitary culture through the ideology of the lrU (the paradigm of 
riflemanism [sušaulinimas] as a social activity, the propaganda of national warfare, 
and the promotion of physical culture).
the final monograph in the project presents the participation of paramilitary groups 
in the uprising of June 1941 (and simultaneously notes the fact of participation by 
some riflemen in the Holocaust), and reveals the extent to which the riflemen, linked 
by long-term social relations, participated in the armed anti-soviet resistance after 
the war. the participants in the project proved that one of the essential moments in 
the genesis of the guerilla resistance in the years 1944 to 1953 was the ideological 
continuity of the riflemanism tradition developed in the interwar period: the impact 
1 JOKUBaUsKas, v. „Mažųjų kariuomenių“ galia ir paramilitarizmas. Tarpukario Lietuvos atvejis [the power 
of ‘small armies’ and paramilitarism. the Case of interwar lithuania]. Klaipėda, 2014; JOKUBaUsKas, v.; 
vaiČenOnis, J.; vareiKis, v.; vitKUs, H. Valia priešintis. Paramilitarizmas ir Lietuvos karinio saugumo 
problemos. [the Will to resist. paramilitarism and Questions of lithuania’s national security]. ed. by 
H.  vitKUs, v.  vareiKis. Klaipėda, 2015; JOKUBaUsKas, v.; vitKUs, H. Lietuvos šaulių sąjungos nariai 
(1919–1940 m.): informacinis žinynas [Members of the lithuanian riflemen’s Union (1919–1940): a 
reference book]. [dvd]. Klaipėda, 2015.
disCUssiOns / apžvalGOs
222
of riflemanism was revealed not only in the press of the armed underground, and in 
guerilla badges and uniforms, but also in the level of moral preparedness. 
the monograph by vytautas Jokubauskas, based on his phd thesis, defended at Klai-
pėda University, and published at the end of 2014, proves that guerilla resistance, or 
the application of guerilla warfare techniques, was one of the distinctive characteris-
tics of the lithuanian armed defence. although some traits of guerilla warfare could 
be found in the uprisings in the 19th century, in the years 1918 to 1923 it became a 
form of contemporary national armed defence, and part of national defence policy. 
the emphasis on guerilla resistance in the event of war in interwar lithuania was not 
an exceptional case in the eastern Baltic region. the lithuanian army planned the 
active application of guerilla warfare techniques, which were included in military sta-
tutes. Guerilla units were expected to act alongside regular forces, while a large part 
of the nation was to be involved in guerilla activities under the leadership of people 
trained by the lithuanian armed forces: officers, riflemen, non-commissioned officers 
and soldiers. in practice, guerilla resistance was used in the uprising of June 1914, and 
during the guerilla war in the years 1944 to 1953. the application of guerilla resistance 
or guerilla techniques in the armed forces of restored lithuania presents one of the 
principal modes of military action applied as a component of defence in cities, of action 
in small units, and of maneuver defence. the concept of 21st-century guerilla resistan-
ce has been indoctrinated through the content of the curricula in educational institu-
tions, the memorialisation of guerilla war, and national commemorations; however, 
no broader civic training for paramilitary activities has been carried out. 
to date, the issues of the military activity and ideology of the lithuanian riflemen’s 
Union, the functioning of the interwar army, and anti-soviet resistance have been 
rather extensively analysed in lithuanian historiography (with certain differences in 
research quality, the degree of investigation, and methodological approaches). Ho-
wever, since statehood was restored in 1990, warfare has not received any special 
attention from lithuanian researchers. We can just note the research by deividas 
Šlekys2 conducted in the field of political sciences at vilnius University. 
in their analysis of the current situation, the implementors of the project at Klaipėda 
University on the history of paramilitarism argue that lithuania’s military security has 
often been determined by the combination of two historical myths: the ‘all alone’ fight 
and the ‘mandatory allied support’, which could be called a national security paradi-
gm. the planning of military defence in the restored republic of lithuania tends to 
maneuver between individual and collective defence concepts that correlate with the 
2 the research The State of the Military Thought and its Development in Lithuania after the Restoration of 
Independence (1990–2012) was funded by the research Council of lithuania from the funds of the 
postdoc studies project. ŠleKys, d. dvi karo sampratos. pastabos civilizacijos ir istorijos rašymo 
klausimais. Naujasis židinys-Aidai, 2015, nr. 4, p. 22.
disCUssiOns / apžvalGOs
223
strategy of the first half of the 20th century. Over the last two centuries, the strategy 
of lithuanian warfare (including the uprisings in the 19th century) was often based 
on the principle that, in the event of military aggression, it was important to hold out 
for some time, and then get support from outside. Given the geopolitical situation of 
the 21st century, the changed security environment, and membership of a collective 
security alliance, that is, nato, one can argue that in the future the focus will stay 
on the synergy of individual and collective defence, which is essentially based on the 
same concept: ‘all alone’ and ‘mandatory allied support’. in this context, the element 
of deterrence, also used in the interwar period, becomes relevant, as well as the di-
versification of political decision-making and the control of the armed forces, so that 
any actions by individuals or interest groups affected by external forces would not be 
able to impact the actions of the defence forces, as happened in 1940. the authors 
argue that, in order to achieve diversification of political decision-making, it would be 
necessary to reinforce and maintain the lrU as a national Guard, separate from the 
army. in the event of a crisis, the lrU would have sufficiently strong headquarters and 
a membership network to enable a prompt response to the military threat all over 
lithuania, should external forces paralyse the decision-making at the highest political 
level. perhaps the insights presented do not currently sound very persuasive; howe-
ver, an analysis of cases of armed resistance in lithuania suggests that the biggest 
problem for national security is timely political decision-making and the presence of a 
will to resist, rather than the level of training of the armed forces. 
as is proven by the research conducted at Klaipėda University, paramilitarism provi-
des an opportunity for small states facing the problem of military security to involve 
wide civil circles in the defence of their country, to increase their military power, and to 
strengthen not only the physical and conceptual, but especially the moral component 
of military power, when most of the active population, and not only specially trained 
professionals, are ready to defend their state not simply in words but also in actions.


Paramilitarism and Opportunities for its Application: Research by Historians at Klaipėda University

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Paramilitarism and Opportunities for its Application: Research by Historians at Klaipėda University

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